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Let’s start with a definition of traffic trade scripts. Simply put, traffic trade scripts automate the process of trading traffic between web sites, ideally making traffic generation a great deal simpler. The script will count every hit in and credit it toward the referrer. Your out-going clicks will then be sent through the script, which will determine where to send them according to the number of hits owed to each trade at the moment. So essentially, the more traffic a web site sends you, the more you send back. The process requires little to no work on your part, beyond setting up the trades in your script.

Note that you may find the words “script” and “program” to be used interchangeably in reference to traffic trade “scripts”. There IS a difference between a program and a script. Programs are written in compiled languages such as C. Since they come already compiled, they tend to run much faster than scripts, which are compiled by the server on the fly each time it is requested by a browser. The most popular scripting languages in which you might find trade scripts written are PHP and Perl. For the sake of simplicity and convention, you will find me using the words script and program interchangeably throughout this article.

Also note that while I call them traffic trade scripts, you may find them under other names, such as circle jerk scripts (CJ), traffic management scripts, etc.

Now, let’s define a couple of other important terms:

Raw Hits: Every time a trade partner sends you a hit, that person is credited with a “raw hit”. If the same referrer sends the same visitor a second time, that trade’s “raw hits in” value is again increased by 1.

Unique Hits: This number counts only the “unique” visitors sent to your site by a trade partner. If a partner’s site sends the same visitor a second time, that site’s “unique hits in” value will not be increased a second time. This figure can be much more important, because more productive traffic comes from unique hits than from raw hits. It is important that you have access to both figures, however.

Productivity: Every good trade script should show you the productivity value of each of your trades. In a respect, this number will become much more important than either your raw hits in or your unique hits in. First, the script must count the number of visitors sent to you by a traffic partner. Then, the script will count the number of times each of those visitors clicks on a link on your web site. It takes the number of clicks generated, divides it by the number of visitors sent, and the result is a percentage value that represents the productivity of that trade. The higher this number is, the more valuable each hit sent from that site is.

Trade Key or Domain: I would assume that by this point you know what a domain is, but the way it is used here is to track ‘hits in’ accurately, without forcing your trade partners to link using a special code. Your script gathers referral information from every visitor who loads your page. If it finds in the referring url a text string matching the trade key in your script, the hit is credited toward that trade partner, increasing the trade’s “hits in” value by 1.

URL: Your trade partner may want you to send the return hits to a specific url, such as main.html. All of the hits credited to a specific trade will be returned to the url you define here.

Return Percentage: This number tells the script how many hits to return to each trade. If your trades are based on unique hits in, and the return percentage is set to 120%, then you will return 1.2 hits for every 1 unique visitor sent to your site.

Permanent Links: These are links that you specify for the script to send to a specific url, regardless of hits owed. This allows for greater control over your out-going hits.

Force Hits: In order to get trades started, it may be necessary that you force some hits. Most scripts have a way to force a number of hits into a trade - sometimes in one shot, sometimes daily.

Choosing a script

When you choose a traffic trade script, there are a few things to look for. In order to trade well in today’s market, there are several features that will be essential to maximizing your trades.

Speed: First and foremost, you should be very conscious of the speed of your script. When someone clicks on one of your links, you want the visitor to be instantly transferred. Slow processing equates to productivity loss. If you want the fastest script possible, always go with a C-coded script. Which brings me to...

C vs. PHP/Perl: As I mentioned above, PHP and Perl are scripting languages, while C is a programming language. At the risk of angering one or two script authors, my suggestion would be to stay away from Perl-coded trade scripts. The language simply has no advantages over PHP or C, each of which offers its own unique advantages. PHP is a web-specific scripting language, and is a good choice because of its integration directly into web pages, its speed advantage over Perl, and its many functions that make web programming faster and easier. The advantage of C is its great speed, which far surpasses that of PHP. When trading thousands of hits, it’s essential that your script runs with as little delay as possible. If you have a choice, C will always be the best option for a traffic trade script.

Productivity Tracking: You should always choose a script that offers productivity tracking. At the very least, it should provide a number in your statistics that displays the productivity value for each trade. This will allow you to adjust your trade percentages accordingly. Ideally, your script will not only track productivity, but will offer an option to trade based on productivity. If you set a trade to return hits based on unique hits at 120%, then it will count the “unique hits in” value, and will return 1.2 unique hits per 1 sent to you by that partner. If your trade is based on productivity, on the other hand, the script will instead count the number of clicks generated by the trade partner’s referred traffic, and will return them 1.2 hits for every 1 click generated.

Toplist: The toplist displays your top referrers in descending order. You can place this list anywhere on your page, and it offers you a way to send some extra non-blind clicks to some of your trades. Hits sent this way will be minimal, but more productive... so I would suggest utilizing this feature.

Gallery Skimming: If you’re site is a TGP, you will likely want this feature. This allows you to set a percentage value to the number of hits sent to real content vs. the number of hits sent to your trades.

Simple URL Hit Counting: In the past, some scripts have required your trade partners to link using toplist-style long url’s. This is not the optimal way to trade traffic. Be sure that your script allows partners to link directly to your url.

Many scripts offer further options for managing and organizing your trades, and the parts should be considered as a whole. The essential elements of a trade script are the features I’ve described here, and any others should be considered bonuses.

This primer should get you on your way to trading effectively. This month’s series of articles will go into further detail about acquiring trades and maximizing the effectiveness of your trades.

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